Before the HCIAA Seglio
baseball playoffs began last week, Hudson County Prep veteran baseball coach Mike Zadroga gave a reminder to his
sophomore-dominated club.
“We were left for dead,” Zadroga said. “We didn’t make the state playoffs. So all we had to play for was the county playoffs. I told them that they might not ever get an opportunity like this ever again, so they might as well take advantage of it.”
So something clicked with the Hurricanes. Like turning on a light switch, they began to hit the ball with authority. After struggling offensively all season long, the playoffs begin and the Hurricanes became sluggers.
“I don’t understand it,” Zadroga said. “We played offense horribly all year and then turned it on now. It’s inexplicable. All of a sudden, we started to hit the ball and score runs.”
The Hurricanes scored 13 runs and banged out 17 hits in the first-round playoff win over High Tech. Then, they pulled off the first upset by collecting 14 hits and scoring 12 runs in a 12-11 slugfest with regular season champion St. Mary’s.
Finally, they faced three-time defending champion St. Joseph of the Palisades in the title game and pounded out 14 hits and scored 11 runs in an 11-3 rout.
Three playoff games, 45 hits, 36 runs – the last two games coming against the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the tournament, teams that soundly defeated the Hurricanes during the regular season.
“In fact, we came down here having played St. Joe’s five times over the last two years,” Zadroga said, “and we lost five times. We just hit the ball when we had to.”
Shortstop/pitcher Kris Gonzalez said that the Hurricanes just hit better when the season was on the line.
“We like hitting with pressure on us,” Gonzalez said. “I personally love hitting with two strikes. Once we got to the end of the season, everyone was just hitting the ball. In the beginning of the season, everyone was worrying about themselves. But we put it all together at the right time.”
Zadroga has guided two other teams to county titles, leading Dickinson to the title in 1983 and Hudson Catholic to the crown in 1995.
“But this one is the best of all,” Zadroga said. “It’s definitely sweet, considering everything that happened this year. These kids never quit. When things were going bad, it would have been very easy for them to pack it in. But these were a bunch of hungry young kids who weren’t ready to quit. They kept their focus, worked hard every day and incredibly, they got the same opportunity they had a year ago to play the same team in the same game.”
Last year, the young Hurricanes, filled predominately with freshmen, lost to St. Joseph in the title game. This year, they turned the tides.
“To play like this against the three-time champion is beyond what I could have thought,” Zadroga said. “You don’t get a chance to say things like that.”
There are also not many teams that end their seasons on a winning note, so Zadroga’s young bunch of players can head to the off-season with two things in mind. One, they played their best baseball in the final three games of the season. Two, they all return, each and every last one of the Hurricanes. That’s not good news for the rest of the Seglio Division. – Jim Hague